July 8
Birthdays: Jean de La Fontaine (1621), R. Carlyle Buley (1893), J.F. Powers (1917), Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926), Shirley Ann Grau (1929), James Cross Giblin (1933), Raffi (1948), Anna Quindlen (1952), Alison McGhee (1960), Erin Morgenstern (1978), Alex van Tonder (1983),
R. Carlyle Buley won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize in History for “The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815-1840”
Shirley Ann Grau won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Keepers of the House”
Quote: “I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”
― Anna Quindlen
“Write the book you want to read and the one your friends want to read. Because then even if it’s not published, it’s still rewarding for you.” – Alex van Tonder
Tip: When writing a back cover blurb, don’t go over about 200 words. Introduce main characters, their problem, and hint at danger or a question to entice reader.
Jumpstart: Write a scene completely in dialogue. Can you get across everything that needs to be shown without devolving into lecture?
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July 9
Birthdays: Ann Radcliffe (1764), Matthew Lewis (1775), Samuel Morison (1887), Barbara Cartland (1901), Arthur Walworth (1903), Mervyn Peake (1911), Oliver Sacks (1933), June Jordan (1936), Nancy Farmer (1941), Glen Cook (1944), Dean Koontz (1945), Thomas Ligotti (1953), Jamie Ford (1968),
Ann Radcliffe was considered the pioneer of the Gothic novel.
Samuel Morison (a Navy Rear Admiral) won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones.
Barbara Cartland held the 1977 Guinness Book record for the most novels written in a year (23). Overall, she had published 723 novels.
Arthur Walworth won a Pulitzer Prize in Biography for “Woodrow Wilson” in 1959.
Quote: “Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life–and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.”
― Dean Koontz, Fear Nothing
“Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid. ” ― Dean Koontz
“The main advice I’ve given every beginning writer I’ve ever talked to is, ‘Do it’. You’ve got to stop talking about it and sit down and do it. Put your ass in front of a computer and do it.” – Glen Cook
Tip: Set up a system to track submissions, deadlines, marketing events, and more. Make the system easy enough to use but detailed enough so you know what’s happening when.
Jumpstart: Finish this: And so, I trudged off to work, my stomach roiling from…
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July 10
Birthdays: Marcel Proust (1871), Edmund Bentley (1875), Mary O’Hara (1885), John Wyndham (1903), Mildred Wirt Benson (1905), Martin Provensen (1916), Jean Kerr (1922), Alice Munro (1931), Julian May (1931), Dianne Ochiltree (1953), Candice F Ransom (1952), Seth Godin (1960), Karen Russell (1981),
Mildred Benson wrote under the pen name Carolyn Keene of “Nancy Drew” fame.
Martin Provensen won the 1984 Caldecott Medal for “The Glorious Fight”
Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Quote: Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ― Marcel Proust
“Someone will always ask ‘How long does it take you to write a novel?’ I hardly ever give them the real answer. ‘It depends,’ I will say. ‘A year. Sometimes three or four.’ The real answer, of course, is that it takes your entire life.” – James D. Houston
Tip: What is your brand? A brand is something that defines what you write. Stephen King’s brand is horror. Zane Grey’s was westerns. Nora Roberts is romance. When people see your name, what type of writing will they identify with you?
Jumpstart: Take two characters from different books and introduce them. What would happen if Tom Sawyer met the three musketeers? Or how would Nancy Drew deal with Sherlock Holmes? Would they solve the case together? Or fight each other?
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July 11
Birthdays: Thomas Bowdler (1754), Susan Bogert Warner (1819), E.B. White (1899), Cordwainer Smith (1913), Frederick Buechner (1926), Harold Bloom (1930), Bobbie Louise Hawkins (1930), Helen Cresswell (1934), Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1938), Patricia Polacco (1944), Robert McCammon (1952), Amitav Ghosh (1956), Jhumpa Lahiri (1967), Min Jin Lee (1968), Kevin Powers (1980), Marie Lu (1984),
E.B. White is best known for “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little”, but he also co-wrote “Elements of Style” with William Strunk, Jr.
Frederick Buechner’s fictionalized biography of “Saint Godric of Finchale” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1981.
Jhumpa Lahiri won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his short story collection “Interpreter of Maladies”
Quote: “A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.” [Letters of Note; Troy (MI, USA) Public Library, 1971]” ― E.B. White
Tip: Everybody has little quirks. What kind of quirks can you give your characters? Does he carry a good luck charm? Does she wear a purple silk teddy under her prim and proper business suit? Does he?
Jumpstart: Go through your high school yearbook and pick out two or three people and write about them now. What is the “class clown” doing? The “most likely to succeed”?
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July 12
Birthdays: Henry David Thoreau (1817), Johanna Spyri (1827), Pablo Neruda (1904), Donald Westlake (1933), Delia Ephron (1944), Elias Khoury (1948), Joan Bauer (1951), Adam Johnson (1967), Amanda Hocking (1984),
Johanna Spyri is best known for her book “Heidi”
Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
Adam Johnson won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Quote: “My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn’t have any excuse to be stupid.”― Joan Bauer, Rules of the Road
“When the going gets tough, the tough get a librarian.” ― Joan Bauer
“My biggest word of advice to any new, future writers thinking about diving into self-publishing: Edit. I don’t care what you think, you didn’t edit enough. Some people won’t care that there’s errors, its true, but enough of them will. And they paid for it, so they have a right to. So edit more. And then again. Really….Self-publishing is great, but it’s not easy.” – Amanda Hocking
Tip: What is your tagline? This is similar to branding. Use as few words as possible to define your writing. For instance, a friend of mine uses: “Mystery, mirth, and mayhem” for her offbeat cozy mysteries. Another uses “Love with a shot of adrenaline” for her action/adventure romances. What is yours?
Jumpstart: Finish this: There she stood, at the door to the cabin, looking like… (write it first as a mystery/thriller, then as a romance, finally, as a comedy)
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July 13
Birthdays: John Clare (1793), Isaak Babel (1894), Marcia Brown (1918), Louis R. Harlan (1922), David Storey (1933), Wole Soyinka (1934), Monique Wittig (1935), Jane Hamilton (1957), Carolyn Mackler (1973),
Isaak Babel was a journalist, Russian translator, dramatist and more, but was arrested and executed during Stalin’s purges.
Marcia Brown has won the Caldecott Medal three times.
Louis Harlan won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for “Booker T. Washington”
Wole Soyinka won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Quote: “Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress truth.” ― Wole Soyinka, Selected Poems
“Write. Write what you love. Write what makes you excited — journal, stories, memoir, anything. Be honest. Don’t be shy about putting in whatever you want. You can always edit later. And then, once you’ve gotten some significant writing done, throw out, revise, start over.” – Carolyn Mackler
Tip: When making changes to a manuscript, keep a copy of the original in case you need to go back. And always back up everything.
Jumpstart: What are you afraid of? What makes you cringe and pull the covers up over your head? What will you not read or watch because of the way it makes you feel? Write these feelings down and use them for your character.
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July 14
Birthdays: Owen Wisler (1860), F.R. Leavis (1895), Irving Stone (1903), Natalia Ginzburg (1916), Leon Garfield (1921), Peggy Parish (1927), E.V. Thompson (1931), Pema Chodron (1936), Susan Howatch (1940), Christopher Priest (1943), Jeff Lindsay (1952), Laura Joffe Numeroff (1953), Joe Keenan (1958), Brian Selznick (1966), Ranj Dhaliwal (1976)
Peggy Parish is best known for your books about “Amelia Bedelia”
Owen Wisler is considered the father of the Western novel.
Laura Numeroff is best known for “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”
Brian Selznick won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”
Quote: “A lot of people who don’t write for kids think it’s easy, because they think kids aren’t as smart as they are, or that you have to dumb down what you would normally write for kids. But I think you have to work harder when you write for kids, to make sure every word is right, that it’s there for the right reason.” – Brian Selznick
Tip: Plot is a series of events that make up a story. Think of it as a map that a driver follows from one point to another. There should be a sense of building. Check your scenes. Do they map out a logical route, or are there detours that lead to dead ends?
Jumpstart: We’ve all read directions that come with “some assembly required” projects. Most are terrible. Find something you’ve done and write a step-by-step manual on how to do it the right way.
Sparkling Book Reviews 